RELATIONAL ANXIETY & TRAUMA THERAPY IN PASADENA
Anxiety and trauma don’t just live in the mind — they live in the body and in our relationships. I offer relational, somatic, and trauma-informed therapy for individuals and couples, helping you understand the patterns shaped by past experiences and build greater safety, connection, and trust within yourself and with others. I see clients in person in Pasadena and virtually throughout California.
Healing Happens In Relationship
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Meeting Your Experience with Care and Compassion
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Healing Happens In Relationship ✹ Meeting Your Experience with Care and Compassion ✹
Does This Sound Familiar?
You may find that:
You want meaningful change, but don’t know where to start — you’ve tried thinking your way through it, and you’re still stuck
You notice yourself repeating the same patterns in relationships, even when you promised yourself you wouldn’t
Your mind rarely turns off — you replay conversations, anticipate worst-case scenarios, or live a few steps ahead of the present
You carry a quiet but persistent self-criticism that’s hard to soften
Your body feels tense, wired, or bracing — even when nothing is “wrong”
Rest feels difficult. Sleep isn’t fully restorative. It’s hard to truly settle
Closeness can feel confusing — you crave connection but also fear being too much, not enough, or misunderstood
Here, you don’t need to be polished or have everything figured out. Therapy is a space to bring your curiosity, your emotions, and your full lived experience. Whether you’re navigating anxiety, relationship concerns, childhood trauma, identity questions, or nervous system exhaustion—this is trauma-informed, relational therapy that meets you with warmth, presence, and care.
Meet Diana Sevastyanova
MA, AMFT
I work with adults and couples who want deeper understanding, more authentic connection, and greater ease in their lives and relationships.
My work is:
Relational — we make meaning together, in the context of connection
Somatic — we pay attention to how your body holds experience
Trauma-informed — care is paced to your nervous system’s needs
Culturally responsive — your identity, history, and context matter here
I offer a compassionate, grounded presence, meeting you in your experience rather than above it. My journey into this work has been shaped by years of somatic exploration, trauma training, relational theory, and deep respect for the complexity of human experience.
My Specialities
Together we can explore explore who you’ve been, how you’ve learned to survive, and who you might become with care, presence, and support.
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CHILDHOOD TRAUMA THERAPY
Childhood trauma can shape how you relate to yourself, others, and the world long after the experiences have passed. Growing up without consistent emotional safety often leads to survival patterns like people-pleasing, hypervigilance, or emotional numbness. In therapy, we honor these responses as adaptations while gently supporting your nervous system in finding safety now. This work helps you move out of survival mode and into a more connected, grounded way of living.
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THERAPY FOR ANXIETY
Anxiety is often a nervous system response shaped by early experiences, chronic stress, or environments that required constant vigilance. It can show up as worry, tension, perfectionism, or difficulty resting and feeling present. In therapy, we approach anxiety with curiosity and compassion, learning how it’s been trying to protect you. Together, we work toward greater regulation, ease, and a felt sense of safety in your body.
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CULTURAL IDENTITY THERAPY
Navigating cultural identity — especially as an immigrant or child of immigrants — can involve balancing multiple worlds, expectations, and family narratives. You may feel pressure to succeed, guilt around independence, or a sense of not fully belonging anywhere. As a first-generation immigrant therapist, I offer a space where cultural context, family dynamics, and intergenerational patterns are deeply understood. Together, we work toward integration, self-trust, and an identity that feels authentic and whole.
Therapy Rooted In Relationship
Life writes its story in our bodies, our relationships, and the quiet ways we learn to protect ourselves. I believe that true healing happens relationally — in the space between self and other, between body and mind, between past experience and present possibility.
Together, we:
Notice how your nervous system responds to stress and safety
Explore relational patterns that have shaped your life
Invite curiosity into old beliefs and behaviors
Nourish your capacity for connection and belonging
Through relational and somatic work, therapy becomes a space to build safety, deepen understanding, and support meaningful change over time.
How I Can Support You
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
I offer individual therapy for adults navigating anxiety, childhood trauma, identity concerns, and relational patterns that feel hard to shift. Our work is grounded in a somatic, relational approach that honors how your nervous system learned to adapt over time. Therapy becomes a space to slow down, build self-understanding, and develop a deeper sense of safety and self-trust. Together, we work toward greater clarity, regulation, and emotional freedom.
COUPLES THERAPY
Couples therapy focuses on the emotional patterns that shape how partners connect and respond to one another. Many relationship struggles are rooted in attachment needs and nervous system responses, not lack of effort or care. I work with couples to slow reactive cycles, deepen emotional understanding, and build more secure, compassionate connection. My practice is affirming of all relationship types, orientations, and structures, including LGBTQ+ couples.
Therapy Modalities
My approach to therapy is integrative, attachment-focused, and trauma-informed. I believe healing happens through safe, attuned relationship and through reconnecting with the wisdom of the body. Rather than relying on a single method, I draw from several complementary modalities to support whole-person healing.
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Relational therapy recognizes that early relationships shape how we experience closeness, boundaries, trust, and conflict throughout life. In therapy, the relationship we build together becomes an important part of the healing process. Patterns that show up in your relationships — such as people-pleasing, withdrawal, fear of abandonment, or difficulty expressing needs — may also emerge gently in the therapy space.
By exploring these moments with curiosity and care, we create opportunities for new relational experiences rooted in safety, authenticity, and repair. This work supports deeper self-understanding and more fulfilling, secure connections with others.
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Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to therapy that helps address anxiety, trauma, and chronic stress by working directly with the nervous system. Even when we have insight or understanding, the body may still hold patterns shaped by past experiences — showing up as anxiety, emotional overwhelm, shutdown, or hypervigilance.
In our work together, we gently bring attention to bodily sensations, breath, and nervous system responses in the present moment. By slowing down and listening to the body with compassion, we support greater regulation, grounding, and emotional safety.
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The Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) is integrated into this work by offering practical tools for nervous system regulation. TRM helps you recognize early signs of stress and build internal and external resources that support balance and resilience. These skills can be used both in and outside of therapy, empowering you to feel more steady and supported in daily life.
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Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts-based therapy offer a compassionate framework for understanding the different parts of yourself that have developed over time. These parts often show up as inner critics, anxious protectors, caretakers, or younger wounded parts — each shaped by lived experience.
Rather than trying to eliminate these parts, we approach them with curiosity and care. This process helps create greater internal harmony, reduce inner conflict, and strengthen your connection to your core Self — the part of you that is calm, grounded, and capable of healing.
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Mindfulness and Buddhist psychology inform a present-moment, non-judgmental approach to therapy. Together, we cultivate awareness of thoughts, emotions, and patterns as they arise, allowing you to relate to your inner experience with more compassion and flexibility.
This approach supports emotional regulation, self-acceptance, and the ability to respond to life with greater intention rather than reactivity. Over time, mindfulness-based therapy can help loosen the grip of anxiety and self-criticism, creating more space for clarity and ease.
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Narrative therapy invites us to explore the stories you’ve come to tell about yourself, your relationships, and your experiences. Many of these stories were shaped in particular relational, cultural, or developmental contexts and may no longer reflect who you are or what you value. In therapy, we gently examine these narratives with curiosity, separating you from the problem rather than seeing the problem as who you are.
Together, we work to identify strengths, values, and moments of agency that may have been overlooked, and to co-create alternative stories that feel more accurate, compassionate, and empowering. Narrative therapy supports a deeper sense of meaning, self-understanding, and choice — allowing you to relate to yourself and others with greater flexibility and intention.
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Imago therapy helps couples understand the deeper emotional and attachment needs that underlie conflict and disconnection. In this approach, we explore how past relational experiences influence the way you respond to your partner today. By learning to communicate safely, listen deeply, and empathize with one another, couples develop greater emotional attunement, repair ruptures more effectively, and create a stronger, more secure connection.
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Emotionally Focused Therapy is an attachment-based approach that helps couples identify and express their underlying emotions in moments of conflict or distance. EFT focuses on creating emotional safety and responsiveness, allowing partners to reconnect around vulnerability rather than blame. Through this process, couples can strengthen trust, deepen intimacy, and build a more secure, resilient relationship.
On The Blog
Reflections on healing, nervous system care, identity, and relationship—written with curiosity, compassion, and a belief in change that happens through connection.
